Q for Byron - Denise (deedeeO)

[Rusty]

or, actually, anybody "up on animals" :)

I'm wondering what kind of deer these are. The pictures were taken last month in Pleasanton (Denise, abt 200 yards from the big curve where Alisal becomes Happy Valley). The back of my son's house faces a large field and small treeline.

My son said mule deer but I don't think so. The ears appear bigger than our Wisconsin white tail and, reviewing "Wild Animals of North America I'm wondering if they could be Columbian Black-tailed Deer - sure look like the picture. The range is very narrow but appears to include the Amador Valley. Do you know?

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1LVh7y9PQA18OeuytqDQzsqmWvxYJm_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1LVh7y9PQA18OeuytqDQzsqmWvxYJm)

Big Daddy always seemed to hang back in the treeline but the does were totally unconcerned about us being only 20 or so feet away. The only thing that kept them from grazing right into the yard was the fence :)

Rusty

[Cmcburnett]

I don't know what the proper name is for them Rusty, but they are beautiful animals.;) I like the layot of also.

[deedeeO]

Hey Rusty....pretty deer!! Don't know from the top of my head...slept through zoology.zzzzz. But, I'll investigate over the weekend and speak to the natives...I'm just an explant here.:)

[Byron Gale]

Rusty,

I know that a species dubbed "black-tailed deer" are found on the Pleasanton Ridge, which is just to the West of the area where you spotted these animals... but your friends' tails don't appear too black, to me! Maybe they're young.

Nice pictures, though. :)

Byron

[Norwester]

They look like blacktails to me. The doe and fawn in my gallery are BTs and heres another pic. They'r related to mulies and have some big ears also.
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y28/NorWestr/IMG_0058w.jpg
ETA Mule deer are generally much more heavy bodied than blacktails also.

[Rusty]

Thanks all for looking and commenting.

Byron and Jeff confirmed what I thought and then I did what I always forget about, Google it. There was a ton of stuff, much of it California-specific, and I now believe they clearly are Columbian Black-tails.

There was one interesting bit I picked up. Most of the Googled articles referred to the Black-tail as a subspecies of Mule deer. One of the most recent articles, however, said: For many years the Columbian Blacktail Deer has been considered a subspecies of the Mule deer, however recent DNA testing has proven this not to be the case. In Valerius Geist's informative book Mule Deer Country he explains that by testing the mitochondrial DNA (the mothers DNA ) of the three species (blacktail, whitetail and mule deer), researchers have now determined that it was the mating of Whitetail does and Blacktail buck's that gave rise to the Mule deer and not the opposite as was once suspected.

Well, not only did I get some cool pictures, I learned something as well. :)

Rusty